Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Listen
Email

Topic Pages contain an overview, definitions, biographies, related topics, images, plus links to relevant articles and other content provided by your library. Topic Page: Agricola, Georg, 1494-1555

Definition: Agricola, Georgius from The Columbia Encyclopedia

jôr'jēӘ Әgrĭk'ӘlӘ, Latinized from Georg Bauer (gā'ôrk bou'Әr), 1494–1555, German physician and scientist, known as the father of mineralogy. He was a pioneer in physical geology and the first to classify minerals scientifically. His celebrated work De re metallica (1556) was a standard in metallurgy and mining for over a century and was translated into English (1912) by Herbert C. Hoover and Lou H. Hoover.

Summary Article: Agricola, Georgius (1490-1555) from The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Fig p093 fig001
Image from: Use of divining rods in prospecting for ore 1.... in Water Encyclopedia: Ground Water
Cite image Cite Image

Place: Germany

Subject: biography, earth science

German mineralogist who pioneered mining technology.

Born in Glauchau in Saxony, Agricola trained in medicine first in Leipzig and later in Italy. He served for many years as town physician in Joachimstal. Involvement with the medicinal use of minerals sparked his curiosity about the products of the Earth, and he soon developed an interest in the local mining ventures. Agricola quickly made himself an authority on mining, metal extraction, smelting, assaying, and related chemical processes. His The Nature of Fossils (1546) advances one of the first comprehensive classifications of minerals. Familiar with previous writers on mining like Bermannus, Agricola went on to explore the origins of rocks, mountains, and volcanoes. His most renowned work, On Metals/De Re Metallica (1556) is an indispensable survey, lavishly illustrated with woodcuts, of the smelting and chemical technology of the time and of the state of the mining industry. Drawing intelligently upon the Pirotechnia of the Italian Vannucio Biringuccio, Agricola's work became a standard text, being translated into Italian and German.

© RM, 2016. All rights reserved. Helicon Publishing is a division of RM.
"Agricola, Georgius (1490-1555)." In The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Helicon. Helicon, 2016. https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/agricola_georgius
Agricola, Georgius (1490-1555). (2016). In Helicon (Ed.), The Hutchinson dictionary of scientific biography. [Online]. Abington: Helicon. Available from: https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/agricola_georgius [Accessed 27 April 2018].
"Agricola, Georgius (1490-1555)." The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Helicon, 1st edition, 2016. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/agricola_georgius. Accessed 27 Apr. 2018.

Related Credo Articles

Full text Article Agricola , Georgius (Lat), Georg Bauer (Ger) (1494 - 1555)
The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists

Born in Saxony, Agricola trained in medicine in Leipzig and in Italy. The link between medicine and minerals led to...

Full text Article Agricola, Georgius Georg Bauer (1494 - 1555)
The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance

Agricola studied at Leipzig and several Italian universities before graduating in medicine. He was physician (1527–33)...

Full text Article Agricola, Georgius 1494-1555
Reader's Guide to the History of Science

German humanist and scientist Adams Frank Dawson , The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences , London : Baillière...

See more from Credo